In December 2019, Holyoke High School announced a new policy requiring school administrators to conduct regular searches of students’ belongings.
Speaking as a student who has been searched… [school administrators] are not disrespectful. But when you come to school, you come here for a safe space. You don’t want to come here every day feeling like it’s a jail.
Prince Diaz, 11th grade Ethnic Studies student
WE TOOK ACTION AND WE WON!
1. Organized 150+ people
to attend and SPEAK OUT at SIX forums for community, students & staff
2. Educated students
about the policy many didn’t even know about it!
3. Reviewed the evidence
Holyoke High was not the first school to propose or implement a search policy and lots of smart people have already studied the impact of these policies.
4. Conducted our own research
including 15 interviews and a student survey
This policy makes me hate school and myself because I feel like a target at school.
Destiny Santiago, 11th grade Pa’lante Peer Leader
If we want students to learn and be safe in classrooms, the last thing you want to do is take them out of class [to search them] so they can’t learn.
9th grade Student, HHS
Hearing that a search policy is coming makes me fear that it’s going in the wrong direction. I don’t want to feel like I work in a prison.
Teacher, Holyoke High
HERE’S WHAT WE FOUND*:
Random Searches Increase
- School disorder
- Students’ stress
- Antisocial behavior
- Frustration and anger
Random Searches Worsen
- Academic performance
- Student behavior
- Relationships between students and administration
There is ZERO correlation between random searches and school violence prevention
- Majority POC schools are far more likely to have increased strict security measures, even after controlling for school crime, neighborhood crime and school disorder
- When LAUSD implemented a similar policy, zero guns were found. Less than 1% of items confiscated were weapons (which included butter knives, art supplies, and defensive spray)
WHEN WE FIGHT WE WIN!
In March 2020, after our extensive student-led advocacy, the principal announced that the policy would not move forward!
This sets a precedent that students have power, we have voice, and we can accomplish absolutely anything!
Salomé Moreno, 11th grade Pa’lante Peer Leader
References
Fisher, Benjamin W. and et al. 2018. “School Security Measures and Longitudinal Trends in Adolescents’ Experiences of Victimization.” Journal of youth and adolescence 47(6) 1221-1237.
Nance, Jason P. 2019. “Implicit Racial Bias and Students’ Fourth Amendment Rights.” 94 Indiana Law Journal 47.
Welch, Kelly. 2018. “The effect of minority threat on risk management and the “new disciplinology” in schools.” Journal of Criminal Justice 59: 12-17.
Romero, Maybell . 2019. Educational Environments and the Federal Right to Education in the Wake of Parkland, 73 U. Miami L. Rev. 731
Bracy, Nicole L. 2011. “Student Perceptions of High-Security School Environments”. Youth & Society 43(1) 365–395.